The invention relates to the field of test preparation. More particularly, the invention may be embodied in a method and system for weighting a response by a user to a test preparation question and readministering the question to the user based in part on the weighted response.
Throughout one""s life, e.g., throughout the course of a student""s academic career, or a businessperson""s professional career, individuals are often required to take a variety of tests or exams for various reasons. For instance, high school students are often required to take a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or ACT Assessment (ACT) as part of the college application process. College students are often required take the GRE, MCAT, LSAT, or GMAT as part of the application procedure for a variety of types of graduate school studies. Adults, as part of their professional careers, must often take a professional exam to be allowed to pursue their chosen profession, for instance, a state bar exam to practice law in a given state, the patent bar exam to engage in practice with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), or medical boards to practice medicine.
The examinations that an individual takes throughout his or her life may have a substantial impact on his or her career. For instance, individuals who score well on the LSAT tend to attend better law schools and obtain higher paying jobs than those who score lower on the LSAT. Likewise, the higher one""s score on the SAT, the better college to which one generally gets accepted. As such, there is often much pressure on an individual to do well on any particular exam.
To help individuals study for such tests, test preparation materials and classes are commercially available. For instance, an individual preparing for a test can buy a test preparation book, attend a preparation seminar, or buy computer software, among other things. Computer software typically administers to a user a series of sample test questions to help the user prepare for the actual exam. However, the software is lacking in that the software generally presents the user with a question, accepts the user""s response, informs the user of the correctness of his or her answer and why, and then proceeds to the next question. When the program finishes all the questions, the program generally either terminates or starts over, readministering the user the entire set of questions.
Some known software programs record when a user answers a question correctly. After answering a question correctly, the program typically does not re-administer the same question because the user already knows the answer. However, when a user guesses the answer to a question and guesses correctly, the software typically assumes that the user knew the answer just as with any other question answered correctly. As such, the program generally does not readminister the correctly guessed question unless the software program is readministering all the questions in their entirety.
Thus, a test preparation software program is needed that can account for when a user is guessing answers to questions, and readministers questions to the user based whether the user guessed previously in response to the question.
In a first aspect, the invention is embodied in a method for displaying test preparation questions to a user. A first question, to which a response is requested, is displayed on a computer display screen to a user. A weighted response to the first question is received from the user. When the user""s response is correct, the previous steps are repeated for the first question when the weight meets predetermined criteria.
In a second aspect, the invention is embodied in a computer system adapted to present test preparation questions to a user. There is a processor and a memory containing computer readable instruction. When the computer readable instructions are executed by the processor, the computer is caused to perform a set of steps. A first question, to which a response is requested, is displayed on a computer display screen to a user. A weighted response to the first question is received from the user. When the user""s response is correct, the previous steps are repeated for the first question when the weight meets predetermined criteria.
In a third aspect, the invention is embodied in a computer readable medium on which computer readable instructions are stored such that, when executed by a computer, they cause the computer to perform a set of steps. A first question, to which a response is requested, is displayed on a computer display screen to a user. A weighted response to the first question is received from the user. When the user""s response is correct, the previous steps are repeated for the first question when the weight meets predetermined criteria.